“I did. Barnswell’s waiting on us. He just texted for the second time.”
Sampson started driving to the hospital as Billy moaned and squeezed my hand. All of a sudden, I noticed her pants darken and Willa looked at me with a worried expression.
“Text him her water just broke, contractions three minutes apart…we need the delivery room prepped and ready. I’m thinking we’re going to be too late for an epidural. Get all that? It’s going to be go-time.”
Frank nodded, and I concentrated on Billy, who was staring at the wet seat.
“Sorry, Samps, but I ruined your car,” she said quietly.
“Stop that, you hear?” he responded without taking his eyes off the road. “Pops, you ready to deliver a baby in the car if need be?”
“Sampson!” Billy managed to get out before I squeezed her hand.
“We’re good, Bill. I’m here and nothing is going to stop us from meeting our baby.”
Truthfully, I wasn’t positive I wouldn’t be delivering our child in the SUV until one more contraction and we were at Cedars-Sinai, Barnswell waiting outside the hospital in scrubs. A nurse waited next to him with a wheelchair and a security officer. I helped Billy into the chair and our cavalry started moving toward the delivery room, Frank giving orders to the security detail.
“No media, no visitors, someone posted at the elevator, no word to the media who came in, nothing,” he barked, and the other guy nodded.
“No one knows who came in. We’re used to this, man,” he assured Frank.
Less than one hour later, our beautiful baby girl, Quinn Conway Rand, entered the world, bald and blue-eyed.
After being relegated to the side of the bed during delivery, I hurried to see Quinn as she made her way into our lives, telling Billy we had a baby girl. Barnswell let me cut the cord before they swooped our baby away for a quick second. Immediately, I was ready to lose the nurses and Barnswell. With our baby settled on Billy’s chest, I requested—no, demanded, “Can we have a moment? Before we tell family and alert the troops. If there is a problem, I know to call.”
Everyone filed out, and I sat down on the bed next to Billy, my palm grazing her hair, my lips meeting her forehead.
“Ten toes, right?” she asked for the second time.
I nodded, my lips still on her skin, my chest lifted over Quinn.
“What about her Apgar score?”
“Who are you, a doctor?” I sat up and looked at Quinn.
“You are. Now tell me.”
“Nine. Totally normal. She had blue feet. Now she doesn’t.”
Billy held Quinn close to her chest, the shoulder of her gown loosened so there could be skin-on-skin contact.
“I’m infatuated already,” I told her.
“Me too.”
That was all the time we had. In a flash, a nurse was back in the room asking if Billy wanted to feed the baby. Billy nodded, in a haze, watching Quinn.
Another nurse said, “Your security detail is demanding to come in.”
“Oh, Frank. He must be beside himself. And we have to let Ford know. He can call my mom and Scotty, for once.”
Frank pounced in, surveying the room. Billy pulled up her robe, covering her clavicle and shoulder.
Billy got the introductions out of the way, her smile never faltering. “Meet Quinn. Quinn, meet Frank, the most trusted man in your life other than your daddy.”
Frank opened his mouth and shut it, staring at Quinn with wide eyes.
Billy brought her gaze toward me—Quinn’s daddy. I’d never be anything else.
